In one of Shawn Simmons’ Instagram videos, a goat on a wall chats up a passing woman. The goat calls out in a thick Bermudian accent: “I know you’re working out and I’m working too, but I’m working on you. Ow …”

Since Mr Simmons posted the video to his @MrFotogenik Instagram page on August 11, it has received more than 1,500 likes and 60 comments. Another video of cows invading a St George’s hotel property has been just as popular.

“I started posting back in 2018,” he said. “I think the first one I did was about Belco. To be honest, I did not expect to become a social-media sensation at that point. It was something that you see a lot in the US and the UK, but it was new to Bermuda. I was trying it out.”

Mr Simmons started by posting on Facebook because alternatives did not exist yet.

In more recent years he focuses on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Today, he has more than 14,000 Instagram followers, and some of his earlier videos have more than 12,000 likes.

Two months ago he was voted social-media influencer of the year in the Bermudian magazine’s Best of Bermuda Awards.

“I was so excited,” he said. “I found out in March and had to keep quiet about it until the magazine came out in June.”

Many of the videos he dubs with his own cheeky humour, were sent by other people.

“I don’t do every video people send me,” he said. “If someone sends me a video and I am not feeling it I don’t force myself to do it. But if I get that video more than once, I might say, OK Shawn, you have to do this because people want it.”

Although he has been known to post videos of people interviewing the premier, or journalists giving local politicians hell, his videos do not have a political slant.

“I wanted to do Bermudian stuff that all Bermudians could relate to,” he said. “I want the whole world to know the island. I want to get as many people as I can to know Bermuda through me.”

When his videos went viral, people started calling him a comedian.

“I had never thought of myself as a comedian before,” he said.

But he saw the potential. He had always been an avid follower of comedians such as Martin Lawrence and Dave Chapelle so he decided to give stand-up a go. His first crack at it was in Wayne “Fire Wayne” Raynor’s Wednesday Night Vibe open-mic sessions, back in 2019.

“That was the first time I went on stage,” he said. “I did one of the comedy sets. It was definitely a learning curve but it was pretty good. I started off with a song and that song took off.”

But he found it challenging to write new material each week.

“I did Wednesday Night Vibes for a couple of weeks but then it was getting to be too much,” he said. “I couldn’t think of new stuff every time, so I stopped.”

He said that in the United States, comedians could travel around to different audiences offering the same routine again and again. But repeating a performance is more challenging in Bermuda, where the same people might be watching every show.

But as his name gets out there, he is being asked to participate in different events. On September 4, he will be hosting Epic Entertainment’s Can’t Stop Mi Tour Comedy Show with British comedian White Yardie.

“I will be up there being me,” Mr Simmons said. “I will be trying to bring my social-media personality live. It is definitely a task, because I have hosted other events, but have never done a comedy show.”

He has been swotting hard for the event.

“I have been writing stuff every night,” he said. “I just want to rock the house.”

Mr Simmons has found that in Bermuda there are a lot of marketing opportunities for a person with his talents. People are always asking him to help promote their events or products. But there are not as many stand-up comedy venues.

He is thrilled to be working on the same stage as an international comedian such as White Yardie.

“I feel he and I are similar,” Mr Simmons said. “He also started from social-media comedy and ventured off into stand-up.”

But as much as Mr Simmons loves stand-up, his main focus is his social-media videos.

“I want to get more international with it,” he said.

Mr Simmons is a man of many talents. He has also worked in music and has a photography business, also called Mr Fotogenik. He explained the origin of the nickname.

“I love taking pictures but I also liked being in the pictures,” he said. “I felt I was a photogenic person, so people started calling me Mr Fotogenik. They weren’t really teasing me. Most people now know me as Mr Fotogenik through my videos and don’t know that I am also a photographer.”

When he was younger, his plan to study graphics at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida did not pan out. So he bought his first camera on Emoo.bm and started taking photographs.

“From there, I would put them on Facebook because this was before Instagram,” he said. “People would hit me up and ask me how much I charged to take pictures.”

At the moment, he works at the Rubis Boaz Island Marine Service Station in Sandys several days a week and works on his photography and social-media projects the other part of the week. His ultimate dream would be to make a living from his talents.

“I think that is a strong possibility,” he said.

For more information see @Mrfotogenik on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.

The Can’t Stop Mi Tour Comedy Show will be held on September 4, at 9pm at the Ruth Seaton James Auditorium at CedarBridge Academy in Devonshire. The show will also include Kyrah Gray, Chris Savage, Bermuda’s funny man Eddie G, and DJ Chubb. Tickets are $75, available at ptix.bm.